Art in Japan>European Art 1500-1930>Pierre-Joseph Redouté: Court Painter of Roses

Original articles on art, artists, architecture, exhibitions, galleries, museums and cultural institutions around Tokyo, Japan.

Pierre-Joseph Redouté: Court Painter of Roses

by John McGee

Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Rosa Centifolia, from the series Les Roses, 1817-24, 
color engraving on paper, 24.5x34cm (Images courtesy of Bunkamura Museum of Art)

Say "botanical illustration" and eyes glaze over. Change it to "Redouté's roses" and hearts go pitter-patter. Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840) was the preeminent flower illustrator of his day, surviving France's turbulent revolution years as a favorite of successive rulers—first Marie Antoinette, then Josephine, and ultimately, the people. 

The "Raphael of Flowers" remains wildly popular today. Yet, incredibly, this show at Bunkamura Museum of Art is Redouté's first major exhibition in Japan. Prints, watercolors, and illustrated books—323 pieces total—drawn from European and Japanese collections introduce the artist's major work, including Les Roses, Les Liliacées and Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs. 

Redouté was born into a family of artists in what is now Belgium. At 23, he moved to Paris to work with his older brother, a stage designer, and in his spare time he painted flowers at the Jardin du Roi. Gentleman botanist Charles-Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle, who had an important impact on Redouté's life, "discovered" him there. Brutelle taught Redouté the anatomy of plants (leading to his first scientifically accurate images) and took him to London, where he learned the single-plate color printing process. Brutelle also helped Redouté get his first commissions for book illustrations.

In all, Redouté contributed to about 50 publications. Selections from 15 are shown here. Most are encyclopedias of plants written by Lamarck, Rousseau and other well-known scientists of the day. Les Roses, however, are associated with Josephine. Napoleon's first wife was an avid amateur botanist, and created a rare plant and rose collection at her country house, Malmaison, that emphasized "botanical" over "garden." Under her patronage Redouté produced his most popular series. 

Cornichons Blancs, from the series 
Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs, 1827-33,
color engraving on paper, 37.5x47cm

Rich colors and subtle shades typify the 21 large in-folio prints (47x37.5cm) from the 1817 first edition of Les Roses. The remaining 150 rose images in this show, however, are in-octavo prints from the 1824-27 series. They are considerably smaller, less detailed and, some might say, monotonous in such volume. 

Redouté's stipple engraving, an innovative technique that used dots rather than lines, allowed greater control and depth of color in his prints. But even the most exuberantly florid of these pale next to the show's highlight: watercolors of pelargoniums (geraniums) he found at London's Kew Gardens. The plant's spindly forms twist, overlap, and droop in the most delicate shades of grey (akin to Blossfeldt's photos, but much warmer). Small sketches at the bottom indicate the color of the blossoms. Today, the rose prints can read like a catalog for suburban house dressing. These early watercolors, however, combine sensuality and detached observation on equal levels. They are scientific documents and pretty pictures. 

Bunkamura, however, knows what sells (it's owned by a department store, after all) and pumps up the sensory. First, they waft essence of damask and other roses throughout the exhibition. Second, in the only part of the show that evokes the English translation of Redouté ("dreaded"), they've installed a dining room in the middle of one gallery and filled it with rose-themed products from corporate sponsors: rose-patterned wallpaper and china, dusty rose chairs, etc. 

Seven large prints by Redouté's younger brother, Henri-Joseph, offer a break from the florabundance. An illustrator of animals, Henri-Joseph visited Egypt and painted fish and crustaceans of the Nile River. Perhaps the message is: Exotic is an interlude but fame follows flowers.

This exhibition was held Aug-Oct 2003 at Bunkamura Museum of Art in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

©2006 John McGee

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